Quiz: Can You Name All the Countries That End in 'N'? It’s Deceivingly Difficult

Taiwan, Oman, Iran... they sort of rhyme, but the 25 countries ending in "N" are nothing as catchy as, say, the "Fifty Nifty United States." If you already gave up on trying to recall them all, you wouldn't be the first. After all, exercising your geography expertise usually comes down to remembering capital cities or niche island chains. So when something as seemingly simple as a last letter comes into play, it can trip you up.

Out of all the countries on Earth, how many can you recount that wrap up with the letter "N"? Put your memory to the test and see if you can name them all below.

Did you breeze through the "-stans" only to completely blank on on the two East Asian nations hiding in plain sight on the Pacific? Compare your final score with friends to see who actually rules the world map. Then, brush up on some of the nations ending with "N" before you take another of our geography quizzes.

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Central and South Asian Countries Ending In "N"

Of the 25 countries that end with "N," eight are clustered in Central and South Asia: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. And of those eight, six are all tied together by one distinct common denominator: -stan.

If your keyboard fell silent while the clock ticked down to zero, odds are you were willing your mind to recall something—anything—you learned about the Silk Road back in AP World History.

The suffix -stan dates back millennia to ancient Indo-Iranian roots, translating directly to "place of" or "land." Once you know the linguistic lore, these nations’ names seem less like a memorization game and more like literal labels.

Afghanistan means "Land of the Afghans," Kazakhstan translates to "Land of the Kazakhs" (with a Turkic root word implying "independence"), and Tajikistan points to the historic homelands of the remaining non-Turkic groups, otherwise known as the Tajiks.

Middle Eastern Countries Ending In "N"

There are six countries in the Middle East that end in the letter "N": Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, and Yemen.

Jordan takes its name from the river carving through the Levant, while Lebanon traces its lineage to a Semitic root meaning "white.” The snow-covered crown of Mount Lebanon, quite literally, lends background to the latter.

On the other hand, "Oman" has nothing to do with its topography. Oman holds a long, complicated history for such a short name, thanks to it being the oldest independent sovereign state in the Arab world. Historians and etymologists still argue over whether “Oman” comes from an ancient Arab tribe, early migrants from Yemen, or an old word for "settled."

European Countries Ending In "N"

For once, Europe has little to do with this global affair. The European countries ending in "N" are Spain, Liechtenstein, Sweden—and, depending on how you map the boundaries, Azerbaijan, a transcontinental country at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Spain’s English moniker derives from the ancient Roman Hispania, though scholars still debate its exact origins. One of the more entertaining theories suggests the Phoenicians arrived on the Iberian Peninsula, took a look at the local fauna, and christened the country "land of rabbits."

East Asian Countries Ending In "N"

Heading back East, Japan and Taiwan are the only remaining Asian nations that end in "N". Of course, the English spelling "Japan" is technically just a translation. Back home, the nation goes by Nihon or Nippon, both translating to "origin of the sun." Accordingly, Japan’s famous nickname is "the Land of the Rising Sun."

African Countries Ending In "N"

There are five African countries ending in "N": Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, South Sudan, and Sudan. While Sudan straightforwardly translates to "land of the blacks" from Arabic, Gabon gets its name from the Portuguese word gabão, meaning a hooded cloak. Early explorers likened the curvy, cloak-like shape to Gabon’s Komo River.

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